Wireless communications has grown nearly exponentially in recent years. The growth is fueled by larger networks with more reliable protocols and better communications hardware available to service providers and consumers. In addition to better hardware, new and improved protocols have made different types of wireless communications available from numerous sources. For example, WiFi® and WiMAX® communications are used by many wireless devices which include cell phones, PDA's, laptops, cameras, digital music players, vehicles, and other communication elements.
Many new wireless devices, cell phones in particular, are dual-mode or multi-mode. Multi-mode cell phones are configured to communicate using multiple communication protocols to allow communication with multiple traditional cellular networks, such as communicate via code division multiple access (CDMA), global system for mobile communications (GSM), time division multiple access (TDMA) wireless networks, and analog networks. Additionally, multi-mode phones facilitate communication with wireless local area networks and wide area networks, such as WiFi. Using a cellular communication protocol and other high-power wireless protocols, such as WiFi, simultaneously to determine if a WiFi communication access point is locally available requires large amounts of power that quickly drain a battery of a cell phone. As a result, many multi-mode phones do not switch between communications protocols efficiently or conveniently enough to conserve battery power.
In many cases, the user of a multi-mode cell phone may be required to manually activate a WiFi feature just to determine if a wireless 802.11 network is available. Furthermore, the user may be required to manually switch between wireless modes in order to effectively communicate using available networks. Although convenient, the enhanced communications abilities of multi-mode wireless devices are marred by inefficient switching between communications protocols and limited battery power. While inefficient switching between communication protocols is a problem with multi-mode telephones, a similar battery power drainage problem exists with laptop computers that use a high-power communication protocol and continuously or intermittently search for local access points.